DENVER -- It doesn’t pay to ask right-hander Ryan Feltner whether he will become the main attraction in the Rockies’ rotation.
The question doesn’t bother Feltner. And he is a cerebral guy, so it’s not as if he’s at a loss for an answer. It’s that defining himself at a given moment just isn’t his bag.
“I’m not a huge goal-setting guy, and I feel like that falls under that,” Feltner said. “I just like to stick to my process and execute that to the best of my abilities. The best way I can say it is I’d like to just look up one day and realize where I am, instead of striving for something -- it puts extra pressure on things.”
On Friday, Feltner shut down a tough Brewers lineup -- one run on one hit and two walks in six innings. Now, by the end of the night, he looked up and didn’t like what he saw. The two-run lead the Rockies took into the ninth inning turned into a two-run deficit, then a tie game, then a four-run deficit in the top of the 10th.
In the end the Rockies lost, 9-7, when Jake McCarthy struck out as the potential tying run in the bottom of the 10th.
While Feltner is keeping his eyes on the process, he is building a good argument for being considered the top starter in a rotation that for now, outside of Feltner and righty Tomoyuki Sugano, is either struggling or depleted.
Feltner, himself, missed five weeks with right ulnar nerve inflammation. But his two starts since his return have been eye-popping. He held the Giants scoreless through six innings on four hits a week ago. He needed just 63 pitches. The last two Rockies pitchers to give up no runs on 65 pitches or fewer through the first six innings are both Feltner. He did it on 56 pitches on April 30, 2024.
In a sense, this one might have spoken louder because he pitched through glaring imperfection.
Jake Bauers' second-inning leadoff double was the only hit he allowed. But he walked two in the inning and threw a whopping 37 pitches. However, he fanned Christian Yelich on a changeup to end the frame with one of his four strikeouts. Yelich was the first of 13 straight batters Feltner retired before leaving after six.
“I mean, he was, like, one hitter from being removed from the game,” Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer said. “In the second inning, he got into some trouble, lost command just a little bit. But he fought his way back in.
“He came back, started pounding the zone again, made good adjustments between the second and third innings and pitched really well.”
The reaction to the poor second revealed the essence of Feltner, who treats pitching as an athletic exercise in problem solving.
Feltner hit Yelich to open the game, then was taken aback as the statistically patient Brewers countered by swinging at more fifth pitches than has been their wont. And after the second inning, a four-seam fastball that had reached 97 mph lost a few ticks.
Yet, the Brewers did not touch him.
“Earlier in my career, I may have tried to fight it and find my velocity,” Feltner said. “But it’s almost like knowing that I had a long inning, I thought that’s just what I’m working with. I’m not going to fight it in that way.
“I’ve always been that way. If I throw over 35 pitches in an inning, my velo is going to be down the rest of the game. So I’m not going to worry about it.”
Feltner and Sugano are the bright spots in a rotation that has three members on the injured list. Right-hander Chase Dollander and lefty Jose Quintana are expected to have long-term absences because of injuries to their throwing elbows, and righty Tanner Gordon landed on the 15-day injured list on Friday (retroactive to Tuesday) with a right hip impingement. Veterans Kyle Freeland and Michael Lorenzen are in rough stretches.
Feltner’s response to the struggles around him is to concentrate on his job.
“I want to be one of the guys that goes deep into the game, always,” he said. “So, no extra pressure. That’s how I identify myself as a pitcher.”